Nothing Gold Can Stay
.
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
.
—Robert Frost (from “New Hampshire,” 1923)
Here’s a poem from my days in Maine that was first published in 1991 in a small literary magazine in Troy, Maine, called “Potato Eyes.”—PM
.
Maine Heron
A blue heron waits an hour,
Shows patient power
In a one-man soup line,
Disregards time
In favor of a single mind—
The key to catching fish.
The heron squawks,
Shoves off with awkward grace,
Gawking into flight,
Pole legs folding,
Kite wings holding,
Then uncranking
Like awnings,
Whacking light wind
Past feathers like
Blue-gray saw-toothed fringe.
The heron stands like a sinister old goat,
A crook in an overcoat—
Chin tucked in,
Legs stem-thin,
Skinny neck, collar up close
To a frown and long nose—
Stuck in the mud in a standing doze.
.
—Paul Marion (c) 1991, 2010
Yankee Magazine arrived the other day. There are a myriad of stories and articles pertaining to summer in New England. Learn the history and “art of the sail” with Robbie Doyle a Marblehead sailmaker. Follow seasoned kayakers along the Coast of Maine’s Island Trail. Enjoy Rhode Island natives Casey and Garret Roberts’ home in Jamestown along “cliff and cove.” Get tips for trapping then cooking the iconic Maine lobster. Get lost in Richard Schutz’s photographic odyssey along coastal Maine as he shares his sense of people and place.
There are New England statistics. For instance – did you know that 15,000 gallons of slush are consumed annually at Canobie Lake Park in Salem, New Hampshire? There’s a state-by-state July-August events and history calendar. Look for the Riverfront Music Festival in Newburyport on July 10th and the Latin American Festival at City Hall Plaza in Worcester on August 21st. Did you know that a tornado cut a swarth of destruction killing eight in South Lawrence on July 27, 1890? And on August 2, 1943, JFK’s PT boat was cut in two by a Japanese destroyer in the South Pacific – leaving him and 10 crewmates stranded for days. Learn about puttting up tomatoes, “rosarians,” sharks and ice cream and much more.
Amid this issue of tales, instructions, facts and tidbits is this gem on the “Knowledge and Wisdom” page from none other than Lowell-born painter James Abbott McNeil Whistler:
“You shouldn’t say it’s not good. You should say you do not like it; and then, you know, you’re perfectly safe.”
Whether this advice was meant as an answer when asked by an artist about his work, I can only surmise. Whistler’s most famous work was “Arrangement in Grey and Black” – commonly known as Whistler’s Mother. It may in fact be the most recognized painting in the world. By the way, by all acounts the model in the painting is the artist’s mother – Anna McNeill Whistler.
Purchase Yankee magazine at a bookstore or better yet get a subscription for this really good bi-monthy publication. Read some of the current edition of Yankee on-line at http://www.yankeemagazine.com. Enjoy.
Culture, Current Events, Greater Lowell, History, Politics | 
2 Comments »
Recent Comments